Silver/ aluminum

[machine shop tom]

I mix a little flat grey with regular gloss silver (Testors colors). Depending on the ratio, it gives a slightly dingy to downright weatherbeaten look.

tom

 

[Airframes]

Same here. As outlined in the above mentioned guide, the various shades of 'silver' can be varied further by the addition of matt or gloss white, greys, black and blues, and, of course, if applied by an airbrush, the effects can be varied even further, depending on the 'weight' of the spray.

 

[ppopsie]

Just have a look.
f86-2

 

[hawkeye2an]

There are differing alloys on aircraft depending upon the area. These vary in color. Hot spots will use steel, others are heat treated differently for stiffness, etc. If accuracy is desired it would serve the modeler to do a little homework on each model where natural metal is the ultimate finish.

Weathered natural metal aircraft really don't look silver anymore. They are really what I'd call gray with highlights of aluminum, titanium and steel suggested in a method that Rub-N-Buff might pull off well. The model might be painted with low-lights over sub-skin structural members, finished in a very light (completely flat) gray and then, using a soft cloth dampened with a metallic color (like dry brush) it can be lightly buffed onto the skins bordered by the underlying structure and feathered out into the gray. These would be the panels themselves. Brand new factory roll-outs will look bright indeed but I've yet to see a model give that appearance in scale. This model of a Republic RF-84F Thunderflash was painted in flat aluminum overall. Structural detail was "picked out" using a regular number 2 pencil and an artist's felt blending stump.

Passaros and Planes 074.jpg - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Beautiful RF-84F Sweb. Don't know if you've checked out the photos I posted a while back under MO Air Guard or not, features a few R/RF-84s.

 

[Loiner]

We had a modelling supplier in to our club night last night to give demonstrations on some of the products he sells, and one was the Gunze 'Mr Metal Color'. He demonstrated brush painting it onto a sample wing and some on a sample engine block, left to dry for a couple of minutes then buffed it with a tissue, and the effect was amazing, a nice smooth well polished very metallic looking finish. (it was good timing for me as I'm about to start a bare metal P47N).

I had bought the Alclad and celluloise thinners a few months ago ready to start on a number of aircraft, but this Mr Metal Color looks so good and so easy to apply, I think I'll just go with it. It is easily sprayed or brushed straight out the bottle, and can be mixed with other acrylics to create subtle shade changes for different panels, and is even cleaned (brushes etc) with water.

Anyway, I bought myself a pot to try, and see how get on with it.

 

[Airframes]

Let us know how it goes mate, could be another bottle for the paint store.

 

[Loiner]

Ok, will do.

I was expecting to get straight on with this and make quick progress, but looks like our house move is coming through, with exchange of contracts iminent and a moving date in under two weeks. The good news is the new place will have a dedicated room for modelling for me (and for art for the missus).

Rob.

 

[Wayne Little]

I had a bad experience using Alclad. I used the black Alclad brand primer then the Alclad II lacquer. The entire paint job cracked all over when it dried. Spent weeks sanding it off. Don't know if it was me or the primer, but as I was sanding it off the primer seemed rather gummy.

Glenn, I don't use the stuff but sometime back IIRC there apparently was a batch problem with part of the Alclad stuff, you would have to do a search to find out exactly what the issue was....but I know there was one.

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks Wayne, I'll have to check it out.

 

[marcus4hire]

I have yet to do an aluminum finish but my next project is fast approaching and will be bare metal so I have been researching

The Alclad route looks good but always seemed like it had a lot of steps which means there are a lot of ways to mess up. Especially for me

I have heard the 'most realistic' is to use simple aluminum foil. Just off the shelf stuff (albeit the higher quality foil) and some PVA glue (I think Elmer's qualifies, maybe thinned down some). Supposedly you can get varying shades for panels by boiling foil pieces with brown eggshell for varying lengths of time. Some of the results looked pretty amazing. I am not sure how painting looks on top of it though. I would like to foil a complete model and then paint on top vs. not foiling where I am painting.

 

[Airframes]

There are various shades and 'grades' of bare metal foils available, in self-adhesive form, from 'Bare metal Foil Company', I think in either A4 or 8 x 10 sheets. These should be found at places like Squadron, Sprue Brothers, Hannant's etc.
A foil finish can look very convincing, but be warned, it takes a lot of patience, and a lot of time, to get it right, having to be applied panel by panel in the main.